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Brown, Hilda Meldrum. E. T. A. Hoffmann and the Serapiontic Principle: Critique and Creativity. Rochester, NY & Woodbridge: Camden House, 2006. 211 pp. £45.00/$75.00. ISBN 1–57113–348–8, Forum for Modern Language Studies, Volume 44, Issue 1, January 2008, Page 90, https://doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cqm128
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Extract
Brown examines the meaning, development and application of Hoffmann's Serapiontic principle, both in Die Serapionsbrüder (1819–1821) and in earlier works such as the Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier and “Der Sandmann”. The Serapiontic (from the hermit St Serapion and the fictional artistic brotherhood named after him) brings together ideas from Schelling, Fichte and G. H. Schubert on the relationships between senses and intellect, subject and object, reality and imagination, Geist and Natur (particularly nature's “dark side”). Hoffmann uses these ideas not only as material for his fiction, but as a way of elucidating the creative process itself. In a self-reflexive turn that arguably anticipates postmodern concerns, Hoffmann integrates the analysis of creativity into his literary texts. The Serapiontic view of the artwork's genesis emphasises the many stages involved: perception of an external stimulus, the artist's penetrating gaze, the internalisation of the external and its re-creation as an “inneres Bild”, and the transformations worked on this material to produce a formed artefact, involving reflection and ironic distance, which complement the “enthusiasm” of the initial kindling moment. The remit of the Serapiontic also extends to questions of reception, didactics and interdisciplinarity (e.g. between musical, visual and verbal art). One has the impression on reading this engaging and thorough study that “principle” in the singular is rather a misnomer; Brown's alternative formulations such as “nexus of connected ideas” seem more apt.
